"Remember that it is not hasty reading, but serious
meditation on holy and heavenly truths, that makes
them prove sweet and profitable to the soul. It is
not the mere touching of the flower by the bee that
gathers honey, but her abiding for a time on the flower
that draws out the sweet. It is not he that reads most,
but he that meditates most, that will prove to be the
choicest, sweetest, wisest and strongest Christian."
(Thomas Brooks)

Friday, July 14, 2006

One New Covenant or Two?

In Jeremiah’s oracle the new covenant is to be made “with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.” In the New Testament fulfillment it is not confined to them, but extends to all believers of every nation—and indeed, in the Old Testament itself indications are not lacking that it was to have this all-embracing character. Whether Jeremiah consciously envisaged the wider extension of the new covenant or not, its wider extension is really implicit in his prophecy: national origin and racial descent must also be included among those externalities from whose control true religion is released by the new covenant. “It is one thing to say that Jeremiah was not given to see what the new covenant would mean for the world, it is entirely another to say that by Israel and Judah he really meant the Church…On the other hand we must not fall into the opposite error of supposing that the new covenant will mean something else for ‘all Israel’ than it does for the Church, that saved Israel will be saved in some other way than is the Church. God does not abolish physical Israel, but in saving it transcend it, just as He does not scrap this earth but renews it.”

F.F. Bruce – The Epistle to the Hebrews

One interesting note, early dispensationalist used to argue that there are really two new covenants and the one to Israel does not apply to the Church, but this idea is foreign to the scriptures.

6 Comments:

Should we ignor, as I believe the early Dispy's did, the fact that The New Testament teaches that,"But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people..." (1 Peter 2:9) which seems to echo Exodus 19:5-6. Should we ignor what God spoke through Hosea 1:9 "you are not my people". Compare Hosea 1:10 with Romans 9:26. Here ,IMO, we see a new people of God, Jew and Gentile, the Israel of God. See Gal. 6:16.

Doug,It seems to me that Scripture teaches that the covenant to the Hebrews will be fulfilled when, "..They look on Him whom they pierced". When they see Jesus, they will recognize Him as Messiah, believe and be saved - "...All Israel". They will be saved by grace through faith in Jesus; just as we are.